Tricycle Blog

On a recent visit to Mexico, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said he supported medical marijuana use, although he spoke against using the drug recreationally. A brave (and questionably sober) member of the audience broached the issue.
More on Buddhism and drugs:
"Liberty and LSD" by John Perry Barlow
"A High History of Buddhism" by Rick Fields
"Psychedelic Journey to the Zafu" by Nina Wise
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Biography and autobiography in Tibet are important sources for both education and inspiration. The authors involved in the Treasury of Lives mine primary sources to provide English-language biographies of every known religious teacher from Tibet and the Himalaya, all of which are organized on their website. The following summarizes the biography of Garwang Dorje and Chowang Dorje Dzinpa, originally told by Michael Burroughs.
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Climate change poses the single greatest threat to the world’s food supply. But we can stop it.
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Among the many things that the Buddhist principle of conditionality teaches us, three are particularly pertinent to any endeavor to diagnose and alleviate suffering on a global scale. The first is that events and processes that appear remote and disconnected from one another may be intimately connected through subtle chains of influence operating subliminally across the systems that generate them. The second is that conditions that appear slight and insignificant on their own can converge to produce effects massive in their impact. Third is that human volition is an important factor in the web of conditions and can thus transform even processes driven by the weight of physical laws.
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Biography and autobiography in Tibet are important sources for both education and inspiration. The authors involved in the Treasury of Lives mine primary sources to provide English-language biographies of every known religious teacher from Tibet and the Himalaya, all of which are organized on their website. The following summarizes the biography of the 1st Adzom Drukpa by Alexander Gardner with Samten Chhosphel.
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Attaining the Way is not difficult,
Just avoid picking and choosing.
If you have neither aversion nor desire,
You’ll thoroughly understand.
A hair’s breadth difference
Is the gap between heaven and earth.
If you want it to come forth
Let there be no positive and negative.
For such comparisons
Are a sickness of the mind.
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Getting to Nirvana is tough. No straight road exists, but that's the point. Artist Talia Shulze has created these infographics to illustrate this and other Buddhist truths.
So, here's to the journey!
—Joanna Piacenza, Web Manager
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Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the 1st Dalai Lama (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Asha Kaufman

Biography and autobiography in Tibet are important sources for both education and inspiration. The authors involved in the Treasury of Lives mine primary sources to provide English-language biographies of every known religious teacher from Tibet and the Himalaya, all of which are organized on their website. The following summarizes the biography of the 1st Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub, by Miranda Adams.
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One of America’s most under-appreciated talents is the sheer genius of its married and unmarried couples in using the language and insights of therapy to destroy their relationships. Decades ago, when psychoanalysis was all the rage, husbands and wives found that throwing a few Freudian insights into their arguments gave both an air of authority to their dismissive judgments of each other and a death-dealing blow to the survival of a healthy relationship. If your parents knew any Freudian jargon, you may remember exchanges like this:
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Last weekend, the Tricycle team was pleased to attend the Shinnyo-en Lantern Floating for Peace ceremony in New York City's Central Park. Led by Her Holiness Shinso Ito, the weekend-long event attracted thousands of visitors and honored the public and personal peacemakers in our lives. In this exclusive interview, Her Holiness speaks with Tricycle about her traditional Shingon (Japanese Vajrayana) Buddhist training, the thrust of Shinnyo-en's teachings, and the importance of continuing these international ceremonies for peace.
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As science invades the humanities, our understanding of Buddhism hangs in the balance
Linda Heuman

In view of Western Buddhists’ eagerness to collaborate with the scientific study of Buddhism, it might be a good idea to consider whether this collaboration is likely, in the long run, to affirm or prove injurious to the very values and understandings that make one a Buddhist in the first place. In so doing, we might cast an eye to academia, where interdisciplinary cross-fertilization between the humanities and the sciences is all the rage. With a brain-science model moving into traditionally non-scientific realms like aesthetics, ethics, and literature, how have the humanities fared?
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Biography and autobiography in Tibet are important sources for both education and inspiration. The authors involved in the Treasury of Lives mine primary sources to provide English-language biographies of every known religious teacher from Tibet and the Himalaya, all of which are organized on their website.
When it comes to key figures in lineage transmissions, biographers often have to grapple with inconvenient and conflicting data. These issues remain contentious because lineage holders are vital links in the chains that connects today's teachers to the Buddha. Take, for example, Zhangton Chobar (1053–1135), and the legend surrounding his transmission of the Lamdre teachings.
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It appears that Aaron Alexis, the gunman in the massacre at the Washington Navy Yard, was a Buddhist. In the Washington Post a headline reads, "Buddhist community ponders apparent link between their faith and Navy Yard shooter."
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For Aaron Alexis, Buddhism was a temporary refuge
Rick Jervis and Carolyn Pesce

(RNS) The man who shot and killed 12 people had his problems. But friends who worked and lived beside Alexis say they don’t recognize the man who went on a shooting rampage Monday at a military complex in Washington, DC, and eventually was shot dead in a gunfight.
Alexis’ life ended in Washington, where he lived in a Residence Inn in the southwest part of the city and worked as civilian contractor for the military. But much of his story is centered in Fort Worth, where he seemed to be an easygoing guy who practiced Buddhism, meditated for hours, and hung out with friends who spoke Thai, as he did.
“He was a good guy to me,” said Nutpisit Suthamtewakul, who met Alexis three years ago at Wat Busayadhammavanaram, a Fort Worth Buddhist temple. The two became good friends.
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The title of your new book is With Each and Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation. Why not the far more popular “mindfulness”? Probably because I’m a contrarian! Really, though, I wanted to put meditation in its larger context, and mindfulness is just one aspect of meditation. It’s not just about getting along better in your daily life; it’s also about your life as a whole. What’s really important to you? What’s not important to you? I’m teaching meditation as way to train the mind to find happiness in all situations and beyond all situations, to think about the higher levels of happiness that meditation can bring.
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On Sunday, September 22nd, Trump Rink in Central Park will be transformed into a pool of shimmering lanterns for Shinnyo-en's Lantern Floating for Peace. The ceremony honors those who have passed away and emphasizes continuity between the past, present, and future. This year's events, taking place the day before a United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York, celebrate peacemakers in particular.
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While the attention of the country has been riveted on President Obama’s proposals to launch missile strikes in Syria, hidden in the shadows, the House of Representatives has been busily preparing an attack of its own. This attack will not be directed against a foreign government accused of massacring innocent civilians with chemical weapons. Rather, it will be launched right here at home, and its targets are our fellow citizens, whose crime is simply being poor and dependent on federal assistance in order to eat and feed their families.
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(RNS) Quick: Where was the Buddha born?
To hear many Indians talk, you’d think it was India, where he attained enlightenment and gave his first sermon.
But the people of Nepal know better—and they are eager to correct misconceptions about the Awakened One, one of the world’s most revered figures.
Next month, Nepal will circulate a new 100-rupee note with the imprint, “Lumbini: The Birthplace of Lord Buddha.” The currency is part of the government’s most recent effort to correct the record.
It comes amid protests following a promotional video on the private Indian channel Zee TV, which claimed the Buddha was born in India.
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Suffering is inevitable, yet it is something many try hard to avoid. This avoidance has its risks, according to Tricycle contributing editor Pico Iyer in yesterday's piece in The New York Times. Iyer contends that there is great value to suffering. And that it's danger is not if this suffering will harm us, but rather if we learn nothing in its wake.
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